Various devices are used in the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and bomb squad environments to disable improvised explosive devices (IED's). These include propellant driven projectiles initiated by electric squids or time fuse. Hanson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,403 issued Oct. 2, 1979, uses several grams of black powder, electrically initiated to propel a liquid out of a barrel, to accomplish destruction of the IED. Electrically operated dearmers require electric squibs as a first fire material, engender a safety hazard when exposed to electromagnetic radiation or static electricity, and require a power source for initiation. Generally, with multiple barrel electric dearmers, the firing simultaniety is relatively poor due to the thermal heating and transfer differences in the bridgewires.
Other dearmers known in the EOD art include explosively operated devices that propel various projectiles or missiles at an IED to destroy or disable them. These generally are initiated by time fuse or detonating cord. The detonating cord is classed as explosives. Proctor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,511 discloses a disposable dearmer using a 50 caliber slug and explosive charge which may be electronically or explosively initiated. The novel feature of Proctor is the ability to position the slug at various positions within the barrel, thus varying muzzle velocity to accommodate different targets.
Other dearmers are known in the art that use 50 caliber small arms cartridges either electrically or explosively initiated to dearm IED's. Another such device uses a 12-gauge cartridge and is modified by using a larger charge than is available in commercial shotgun shells. This device uses an electric operated pyrotechnic squib affixed to the shotgun shell to initiate the propellant.
Other devices affix a length of time fuse or detonating cord to the rear of small arms cartridges to initiate the propellant. In these devices, the detonating cord initiates the cartridge primer while the time fuse usually initiates the propellant directly.
All known small arms cartridge dearmers require specially configured modified cartridges to receive either electric squibs or time fuses, those using detonating cord require a blasting cap to initiate the detonating cord and the others a power source. There are no known dearmers using standard off-the-shelf small arms cartridges to destructively disable an IED.
Another requirement extant in the EOD environment is a dearmer with a capability to fire multiple explosive slugs or missiles into an IED at different entry points with a high degree of simultaniety. As IED's increase in sophistication, the simultaniety requirement often demands closer and closer functioning times of the missile disruptors.